[Illustration] Although Sir Rowland Stanley Errington, brother of Sir William Massey Stanley, late of Hooton, in the county of Chester, Baronet, is in fact the head of this illustrious house, yet, as that estate has been sold, and his family have now no connection with Cheshire, the Earl of Derby must be considered the _chief_, as he is in truth the _principal_, branch of the house of Stanley. As few families have acted a more prominent part in History, so few can trace a more satisfactory pedigree. Descended from a younger branch of the Barons Audeley, of Audeley in Staffordshire, the name of Stanley, from the manor of that name in this county, in the reign of John, was assumed by William de Audleigh. Sir John Stanley, K.G., Lord Deputy of Ireland, in 1381 married the heiress of Lathom, and thus became possessed of Knowesley; it was this Sir John also who obtained a grant of the Isle of Man, which afterwards descended to the Murrays Dukes of Athol till 1765. The principal branch of this family became extinct on the death of James, tenth Earl, in 1736; when the earldom descended on Sir Edward Stanley of Bickerstaff, Baronet, descended from Sir James Stanley, brother of Thomas second Earl of Derby. For Stanley of Hooton, see Ormerod's Cheshire, ii. 230. The famous, or rather infamous, Sir William Stanley was of this line. Younger Branches. Stanley of Cross-Hall, descended from Peter second son of Sir Thomas Stanley, 2nd Baronet, who died in 1653; and the family of the late Rev. James Stanley of Ormskirk, descended from Henry 2nd son of Sir Edward Stanley 1st. Bart. who died in 1640. Stanley of Alderley, Cheshire, Baron Stanley of Alderley 1839, descended from Sir John Stanley and the heiress of Wever of Alderley. See Ormerod, iii. 306. Stanley of Dalegarth, Cumberland, descended from John, second son of John Stanley, Esq., younger brother of Sir William Stanley, and the heiress of Bamville. See Brydges's Collins, iii. 50; Seacome's House of Stanley, 4to. 1741; for Stanley Legend, &c. Coll. Topog. et Genealog. vii. 1. ARMS.--_Argent, on a bend azure three buck's heads cabossed and attired or_, assumed on the match with the heiress of Bamville, instead of the coat of Audeley.* Present Representative, Edward Geoffery Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, K.G. * The Dalegarth family bear the _bend cotised vert_. ASSHETON OF DOWNHAM. [Illustration] This is the only remaining branch of the old Lancashire family of Assheton, originally seated at Assheton-under-Lyne, and of whom the Asshetons of Middleton and of Great Lever, both Baronets, represented the elder lines. The present family descend from Radcliffe Assheton, second son of Ralph Assheton, of Great Lever, born in 1582. Downham appears to have come into the family in the seventeenth century.